Dr. Andrew Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and was formerly the Director of Research at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois Chicago.
His research and teaching focused on interaction and collaboration using advanced visualization displays and the application of those displays to enhance discovery and learning.
News
summer '24
After 30 fun and exciting years working with EVL, starting as a visiting PhD student traveling with the lab to SIGGRAPH 1994 to show off my scientific visualization CAVE application, and working my way up to Professor and EVL's Director of Research, I retired on June 30th and continue as Professor Emeritus of Computer Science.
spring '24
This term I am teaching CS 528 Virtual Reality
Sai successfully defended her PhD dissertation - Supporting Metaphor Elicitation in Asymmetric Virtual Environments
Ashwini successfully defended her PhD dissertation - Multimodal Situated Analytics (MuSA) for Analyzing Conversations in Extended Reality
fall '23
This term I am co-teaching CS 427 Creative Coding with Daria Tsoupikova from the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts.
NSF has funded the 'Research Infrastructure: MRI: Track 2 Acquisition of Data Observation and Computation Collaboratory (DOCC)' grant that I am PI on for $1,500,000 for three years to help us build an interactive data visualization and collaboration space in the new CS building.
September 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at UIC, which was known as the Circle Graphics Habitat in 1973 when UIC was known as the University of Illinois Chicago Circle. A retrospective article on those 50 years is coming soon in Presence.
summer '23
2023 is the 40th Anniversary of the creation of Castle Smurfenstein! head on back to the 1980s here
spring '23
Hummingbird is being shown March 24-26 at the Chicago Children's Theatre
Arthur successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Collaborative Augmented Reality for Virtual Reality Display Wall Environments.
This term I am on sabbatical.
fall '22
This term I am teaching CS 428 Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality
Our CS+DES undergraduate program, combining Computer Science and Design, has its first cohort of students this fall.
The US Department of Energy has funded our C^2-THE-P^2 = Chicagoland Computational Traineeship in High Energy Particle Physics grant to help train computer scientists and physicists to work together at national labs like Fermi.
summer '22
Hummingbird was shown at SIGGRAPH 2022 in Vancouver in August.
spring '22
This term I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics, and co-teaching CS 427 Creative Coding with Daria Tsoupikova from the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts.
fall '21
This term I am back in the evl classroom teaching CS 428 Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality.
We hosted limited performances of Hummingbird in evl December 3-6 in collaboration with the Goodman Theater New Stages Festival.
summer '21
The Illinois Board of Higher Education has approved the new Computer Science + Design Undergraduate Major at UIC which is 1/3 Computer Science, 1/3 Design, and 1/3 general education, starting in Fall 2022.
Due to COVID-19, we are having limited performances of Hummingbird in evl in June.
Krishna successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Hybrid Collaborative Virtual Environments.
Jillian successfully defended her PhD dissertation - Interaction with Multiple Data Visualizations Through Natural Language Commands.
Abeer successfully defended her PhD dissertation - Supporting Collaborative Exploratory Visual Data Analysis in Multi-device Environments.
spring '21
This term I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I asynchronously.
fall '20
This term I am teaching CS 428 Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality asynchronously.
NSF has funded the 'CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Articulate+ - A Conversational Interface for Democratizing Visual Analysis' grant that I am PI on for $333,000 for two years.
With Maxine Brown retiring, I am now the Interim Director of EVL in addition to my position as EVL Director of Research.
summer '20
This summer I've been spending a lot of time on the front porch creating course videos with my new setup, and like everyone else, attending a lot of video conferences
spring '20
Achievement unlocked: May 1st marks 25 years since I moved to Chicago to start working at UIC.
This term I am teaching CS 528 Virtual Reality and CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I.
NSF has funded the Collaborative Research: CSSI Frameworks: SAGE3: Smart Amplified Group Environment for Harnessing the Data Revolution grant that I am Co-PI on for $2,250,000 for five years.
Julieta and I added a Powerwall battery onto our home solar panel system.
fall '19
This term I am teaching CS 428 Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality.
Julieta and I installed 6 kW of solar panels on the roof of our bungalow to offset our electricity usage.
I was promoted to full professor starting this term.
summer '19
On May 29th I was invited to give a talk at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as part of their Information Sciences and Technology Colloquium Series
spring '19
This term I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I.
Congrats to Ph.D. graduate Victor Mateevitsi whose Spider Sense work is being showcased at the Museum of Science and Industry as part of their Wired to Wear exhibit for the next year.
fall '18
This term I am teaching Virtual and Augmented Reality in our new Continuum space, and this special topics course has now been approved as a regular course - CS 428.
NSF has funded the 'MRI - Acquisition of a Composable Platform as a Service Instrument for Deep Learning and Visualization (COMPaaS DLV)' grant that I am Co-PI on for $997,363 for three years.
Mike successfully defended his PhD dissertation - A Distributed Graph Approach For Retrieving Linked RDF Data Using Supercomputer Systems, and will be continuing on as an Assistant Professor at Lewis University.
Julieta and I welcomed a second electric car into our garage with a Tesla Model 3 joining our Nissan Leaf.
summer '18
evl staff and students (including 5 CS undergrads) are spending the summer installing and testing the core of the Continuum display and sensor systems.
spring '18
This term I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I
Remodeling has finished on our new Continuum space so now we get to start adding in the fun stuff
I (along with Bob and Max) got to meet Ivan Sutherland
fall '17
This term I am teaching a new 400 level course on Virtual and Augmented Reality that will act as a more practical introduction to the field compared to the graduate level Virtual Reality course that I have taught for the last 20 years.
Victor successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Supporting Navigation with a Torso Wearable Tactile Display.
Our CAVE2 US patent was granted #9,800,862 - System and methods for visualizing information
summer '17
Viewing the total eclipse in Missouri.
This will be the 10th year of UIC's Image of Research contest, and my 10th year as a judge for the contest.
Congratulations to Arthur Nishimoto, Honorable Mention, in the 2017 UIC Image of Research Contest.
spring '17
This term I am teaching CS 422 User Interface Design and Programming
Alessando successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Multiview Immersion in Hybrid Reality Environments - on March 3rd and will be continuing his work at Citadel.
Marching for science in Chicago.
Julieta and I brought our Nissan Leaf we bought in Hawai'i back to Chicago.
fall '16
This fall I am on sabbatical at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, helping out former evl Director Jason Leigh on his Cyber-CANOE project, using evl's SAGE2 and Omegalib software to link scientists and educators across Hawai'i.
NSF has funded the MRI - Development of Continuum: A Virtualized Attentive Environment for Amplified Collaboration grant that I am PI on for $550,001 for three years.
summer '16
Congratulations to Victor Mateevitsi, 1st Place Winner, and to Jillian Aurisano and James Hwang, Honorable Mention, in the 2016 UIC Image of Research Contest.
spring '16
This term I am teaching CS 422 User Interface Design and Programming
Congratulations to Victor Mateevitsi, 2015 UIC Dean's Scholar Award winner, and to Jillian Aurisano, 2015 UIC Chancellor's Award winner, and to Arthur Nishimoto, 2016 Chancellor's Student Service Award winner.
fall '15
This term I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I
IEEE Viz is in town this month so many former evlers are getting a chance to meet the current crew
On November 18th I was invited to be part of the Cognitive and Immersive Systems panel at the IBM Cognitive Computing Colloquium at Rensselaer Polytechnic's EMPAC Center in Troy NY.
summer '15
Julieta and I visited Montreal for a few days in the late spring, and then LA and Buenos Aires in the late summer.
Huy successfully defended his PhD dissertation - OPTIQ: A Data Movement Optimization Framework for Data-centric Applications on Supercomputers - on July 14th and will be heading off to work at Microsoft.
Tommy successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Intensive Remote Collaboration using Scalable Visualizations in Heterogeneous Display Spaces - on August 21st and will be heading off to work at Argonne.
spring '15
This term I am teaching CS 528 Virtual Reality, and the UIC node of the Blue Waters course on High Performance Visualization for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analytics.
EVL participated in 'Circle Back UIC Forward', the 50th anniversary of the ribbon cutting for the University of Illinois Circle Center campus, by giving tours and demonstrations to U of I President Killeen, U of I Board of Trustees Chairman McMillan, UIC Chancellor Amiridis, Bill Daley, and members of the public on Feb 22, 2015.
On April 22 I was interviewed on WCGO radio by Milt Rosenberg, along with Prof. Gary Wolfe of Roosevelt University, on Talking Science Fiction.
On May 1st I celebrated 20 years at evl / UIC / Chicago.
On May 5th new University of Illinois President Killeen visited evl and talked with factuly, staff, and students as part of his tour of UIC.
fall '14
I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I this fall in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom.
NSF has funded the Development of the Sensor Environment Imaging (SENSEI) Instrument grant that I am Co-PI on for $2,999,999 for three years.
Hyejung successfully defended her PhD dissertation - Effective Space Organization Design for Large High-resolution Environment - on December 9th and will be heading off to work at LG.
evl hosted CAVE2 tours as part of UIC's University-wide Open House on September 13.
Chicago ideas week returned to evl for our third presentation and tour on October 13th. For more details see www.chicagoideas.com. UIC also news has a short announcement and ChicagoInno has us as one of their top 10 Chicago Ideas Week pics.
Computer Science Degree Hub listed the UIC CS Department as the 26th most innovative CS Department in the US with special mention of the CAVE2.
summer '14
The 50th graduate student that I have advised since 1997 is graduating this term, which breaks down into 8 Ph.D, 15 MS Thesis, 27 MS Project.
Godzilla vs Megaguirus from 2000 is now available on blu-ray and streaming in the US, so before you see the big budget US film this summer you can see a younger me run away from Godzilla in high-definition. More details here.
NSF has funded the EAGER: Collaborative Research: Articulate: Augmenting Data Visualization With Natural Language Interaction grant that I am Co-PI on for $300,000 for one year.
spring '14
I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I this spring in evl's CyberCommons as a joint class with Jason's ICS 691 Seminar of Data Visualization course at the University of Hawai'i. Jason and I first taught a class together 25 years ago.
I am now Director of Research at evl.
Julieta and I visited Jason in Hawai'i and I saw the course that Jason and I are co-teaching from the other side. Photos available here.
fall '13
Al Jazeera America did a nice video story on research using CAVE2 on Dec 8, available here.
evl hosted a lab tour for Chicago ideas week on October 14th. I gave a talk about evl and attendees were able to experience CAVE2. For more details see www.chicagoideas.com. The Chicago Tribune has an article on the tour here.
evl hosted CAVE2 tours as part of UIC's University-wide Open House on October 5.
I am teaching CS 526 Computer Graphics II this fall in evl's CAVE2 focusing on room-sized displays.
NSF has produced a nice video on the CAVE2, available here.
summer '13
2013 is the 30th Anniversary of the creation of Castle Smurfenstein! head on back to the 1980s here
WTTW, our local PBS station, has created a nice segment on evl's involvement in creating the computer graphics for the first Star Wars film in 1976 here
James (Sangyoon) successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Supervised Hybrid Expression Control Framework for a Lifelike Affective Avatar - on July 19th and will be heading off to work at Connecticut College
evl will be celebrating its 40th anniversary later this year
Julieta and I spent two weeks out west - Arches, Zion. Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Wall drug, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, and other sights. Photos available here.
spring '13
evl has started to hold monthly open houses for people interested in visiting the new CAVE.
WTTW, our local PBS station, has created a nice segment on evl's new CAVE here
evl's Futures of the Past series continues Fridays at 1pm in the Cyber-Commons. The current list is here
fall '12
I am teaching CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics I this fall in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom.
evl has unveiled CAVE2.
evl hosted a lab tour for Chicago ideas week on October 8th. I talked about 'Turning Science Fiction into Reality' and the public was able to experience our new CAVE2. For more details see www.chicagoideas.com
summer '12
CAVE2 construction is under way! and evl has a video about the new CAVE here
spring '12
I am teaching CS 422 User Interface Design and Programming as well as CS 525 GPU Programming in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom.
I participated as a mentor in the Chicago area Spark program.
I am now an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Systems Science, in the College of Nursing at UIC.
fall '11
I am teaching Visualization and Visual Analytics I this fall in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom which has been upgraded to a passive stereo tiled LCD wall.
evl has begun showing classic sci-fi movies and TV episodes to spur discussion about how the technology and social issues of the time affect the views of the technology of the future. The current list is here
summer '11
Ratko successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Collaborative Interaction And Display Space Organization In Large High-Resolution Environments - on July 1st and will be heading off to work at Intel
spring '11
I am teaching Visualization and Visual Analytics II this spring in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom.
Julian successfully defended his PhD dissertation - Immersive Empathic Design for Interdisciplinary Collaborations - on May 11th and will be heading off to work at Pixar
fall '10
This fall I am teaching Visualization and Visual Analytics again in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom.
CS 424 Visualization and Visual Analytics and CS 524 Visualization and Visual Analytics II have now been approved as permanent courses starting in Spring 2011.
Our earthquake preparedness game is now available to play on the Illinois Emergency Management Agency website.
UIC has approved our undergraduate Human Centered Computing Concentration for undergraduates who are interested in focusing their studies in this area. More information available here
summer '10
Julieta and I spent a week in Chile's Atacama Desert - the town of San Pedro de Atacama (at 2400m), Valle de la Luna, the Salar (salt flat) de Atacama with its flamingos, the El Tatio geyser field (at 4200m), Laguna Miscani and Mi�iques (at 4100m), and other sights.
Photos available here.
spring '10
NSF MRI-R2: Development of the Next-Generation CAVE Virtual Environment (NG-CAVE) awarded to UIC/EVL.
This spring I'm teaching CS 525 - GPU Programming in EVL's Cyber-Commons classroom.
I ported Unfolding Space and battalion to the iPad. Since then Unfolding Space has been in the top 100 free ipad lifestyle apps and battalion in the top 100 free ipad action games.
fall '09
This fall I won the 2009 award for Excellence in Teaching, which is given out to at most five faculty members each year at UIC.
I am teaching a new course in the fall - Visualization and Visual Analytics - with the temporary number of CS 491. This is a more practical undergraduate and graduate version of the 'current topics in visualization' course that I have been teaching for several years. It is also be the first course taught in EVL's new Cyber-Commons classroom.
summer '09
EVL hosted a second Saturday of 'science chicago' on July 18th. I talked about 'Imaging the Future' and the public was able to interact with current hardware and software projects.
The 'Water' exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago featured EVL's raintable software running on an EVL-developed high-resolution table, developed in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota. The exhibit ran from June 17 through September 20.
NSF STCI: OptIPlanet Cyber-Mashup: Persistent Visualization and Collaboration Services for Global Cyber Infrastructure Awarded to UIC/EVL.
spring '09
I have started porting some of my OpenGL applications to the iPhone.
Here is a link to Unfolding Space
Here
is a link to battalion
From May '09 through February '10 Unfolding Space has been in the top 8%-12% of lifestyle apps, and battalion has been around the top 35%-37% of action games.
fall '08
Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business by Edery and Mollick has a paragraph on 1983's Castle Smurfenstein as the first user-created mod of a computer video game.
The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism by Mason has more on Smurfenstein including the quote "But what started out as a harmless prank was to become the lifeblood of the gaming industry... By remixing a game, the Dead Smurf Software crew changed the game entirely."
Contact Information
office and lab location
Electronic Visualization Laboratory
2032 Engineering Research Facility
University of Illinois Chicago
842 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL 60607
ajohnson at uic.edu
(312) 996-3002 - EVL phone
(312) 413-7585 - EVL fax
mail address
Department of Computer Science (M/C 152)
851 S. Morgan St., Room 1120 SEO
University of Illinois Chicago
Chicago, IL 60607-7053
Links
